Running a small business can be hard. Fortunately, on Tuesday 16 Feb, we’re hosting the first live #EventsChat of 2016 at Campus London, called “Lead Gen in Real Life: A Practical Guide to Building Your Business with Events.”

In preparation we thought we’d get a few of our prized panelists warmed up by asking them the question, “What do you think are the biggest challenges for small businesses who want to run events, and what’s your advice to overcome them?”

Here’s what they said:

Nigel Twumasi, Co-founder, mayamada

“I see the biggest challenge for small businesses running events is the same for small business in general: realising that you can’t do it all yourself (which can be easier said than done!).

“This is particularly true for small and often time constrained teams. Overcoming the need to do it all yourself is best done by looking for capable people to build an event team around and give yourself a break!”

Alex Shebar, London Community Director, Yelp

“When throwing an event, take the elements you like and put them into your plan. Even if you throw a really fun thing for 20 people who then become incredible fans of what you do, it’s a win. You don’t have to throw a big event to get a big result. Be bold and steal away.”

“The biggest challenge I think for small businesses who want to run events is them trying to match the other things they’ve seen. They look at these London events for hundreds of people with giant budgets and try to do something similar or are so intimidated by them, they just give up. But don’t give up!”As English writer W. H. Davenport Adams said, “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” (The quote is often attributed to Pablo Picasso, who himself probably stole it.)

Mich Ovens MBE, Campaign Director, Small Business Saturday UK

“The biggest problem we see is the cost of running events – it tends to put off small businesses! I would say do NOT let this be a problem! Look for other small businesses as venues – we have used coffee shops, galleries, office space – and give them some promotion in exchange for space usage. Then voila – you have a space without having to pay for it. Equally with things like catering – look at partnering with other small businesses in your area. Social media is a great way of giving these partner businesses promotion and visibility without having to cost you anything.”

Dan Calladine, Founder, London Popups

“I think the biggest challenge is cutting through the clutter of all the other events out there.  How to make your event stand out and convince people that it’s the best thing they can do that day, when there are so many other things to do.  There’s no single answer to this, but it means that people need to be really creative in every part of the event from conception to pricing to marketing.”

Jason Allan Scott, Award Winning Events Professional and Entrepreneur

“There are so many BIG challenges facing small businesses: need or gap fixing, idea execution, human capital, funding, valuation, cash flow, customer acquisition and retention – the list goes on but the one that events and small business share is RAISING FINANCE.

“Do you go in debt or equity fund, what terms will you set, how and at what cost? Crowd fund or bootstrap? My advice would be to hire or collaborate with an expert or mentor who is skilled and this will help the startup in its journey to success.

“I also firmly believe that one’s network is their networth and to leverage this with both your startup and your events, with favours, introductions, opportunities and ideas. We live in a creative community, one where sharing an idea can grease the wheels of commerce and lubricate opportunity.”

Agreed or disagreed with what they said? Take part in our live poll below, or if you’ve got a different opinion altogether then tweet us using #EventsChat.